GlobalFoundries, which has vowed to spend $10 billion over the next two years at its Fab 8 chip factory in Malta, has become one of the most aggressive semiconductor companies in the world when it comes to capital spending, according to new data released by IC Insights.

Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., IC Insights tracks and forecasts semiconductor industry spending, and in a recent report it predicts that GlobalFoundries will spend $5.5 billion this year globally on capital projects such as the expansion of its Fab 8 facility, which includes construction of a new $2 billion research and development lab.

That capital budget would be $1 billion more than last year, a 22 percent increase, which is a major deal in the industry since capital spending overall by the industry dropped 3 percent last year, according to IC Insights.

A GlobalFoundries spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment on the numbers, although in general they mirror comments made by the privately held company, which employs more than 2,000 people in Malta.

However, the 22 percent increase also outpaces spending increases — by percentage — by the world's three largest chip-makers, Samsung, Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the heavyweights of the industry. Both Samsung and TSMC reportedly make chips for Apple's iPhone and iPad devices, although GlobalFoundries has also reportedly been trying to win some of that business.

Intel, the world's largest chip-maker, is only increasing capital spending by 4 percent this year to $11 billion, according to IC Insights, while Samsung and TSMC are basically holding the line and not increasing spending at all.

GlobalFoundries' 2014 spending increase is also significant because the company, which also runs factories in Germany and Singapore, had already increased its 2013 capital budget by 18 percent over its 2012 budget of $3.8 billion, making it one of the only top chip companies in the world to have double-digit increases two years in a row while much of the industry has been afraid to spend.

Much of GlobalFoundries' spending has been in New York state, site of what is the company's most advanced chip factory, as well as in Dresden, Germany, where the company has also been upgrading its manufacturing capabilities.

The company was created in 2009 after Advanced Micro Devices spun off its manufacturing into a joint venture funded by the government of Abu Dhabi.

In January, the Advanced Technology Investment Co., the Abu Dhabi fund that owns GlobalFoundries, said it would spend $10 billion over 2014 and 2015, most of it on Fab 8.